Some News Banned in Boston

The Boston Globe blogs today note Mitt Romney’s new radio ad on immigration. The tone of Globe reporter Foon Rhee’s post is very adversarial, but rather than go into that note that readers of the Globe would have no idea why the issue of illegal immigration suddenly seems to be on the front pages (of other papers at least). You would never know if you read only the Globe.

The reason for the latest spurt of immigration discussion is the fact that 2 of the 3 adult suspects in the recent gangland triple murder in Newark are illegal immigrants. The Globe has limited its coverage of this story to 3 AP stories that it ran on August 9, on August 18, and on August 21. But the Globe’s parent paper – not known as a Republican stronghold – ran a story on Sunday August 19 focused on the illegal immigration aspect of the murders. Here are the key excerpts from the Times story (emphasis mine):

[the suspect] Mr. Carranza was first arrested in October 2006, in West Orange, N.J., on aggravated assault charges after a bar fight, and again twice earlier this year on charges that he raped a child in his care. After the October arrest, he was freed on $20,000 bail. After the second arrest, in Orange, N.J., bail was set at $150,000, and Mr. Carranza was freed after posting it through a bondsman. Arrested again in May, in Newark, on additional sexual assault charges in the child rape case, bail was set at $300,000 but then lowered to $150,000, which Mr. Carranza had already posted.

In neither case did the arresting officers report Mr. Carranza’s immigration status to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center that acts as a liaison with local officers. Neither did the prosecutors who were handling the two cases; their policy is to contact the immigration service only when cases are completed…

It was only after his arrest on murder charges on Aug. 9 that Mr. Carranza’s immigration status was reported. After an employee in the Essex County Sheriff’s Office learned that Mr. Carranza’s Social Security number was fake, the immigration service issued a “detainer,” which gave federal agents the right to hold Mr. Carranza if and when local officials set him free…

In the New York City area, some leaders — including the mayor of Morristown, N.J. — have embraced a federal program known as 287 (g). The program, named for a section of the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act, allows local officers to be deputized as immigration agents. In other cities, mayors have moved in the opposite direction, formally declaring that local officials, including the police, will not ask about immigration status. In Newark, the Municipal Council has adopted a nonbinding resolution that commits the city to being a “sanctuary” for immigrants.

A follow-up Times story published today, the NJ prosecutor does a superb back-pedal from the sanctuary stance:

At a news conference that was held before Mr. Tancredo’s[campaign speech in Newark], Paula T. Dow, the Essex County prosecutor, whose office was one of several law enforcement agencies that failed to examine Mr. Carranza’s immigration status, shifted the blame to the federal authorities. Officials in Ms. Dow’s office had said their policy was to not notify immigration officials until suspects were convicted, which they believed was the officials’ preference. Ms. Dow also pointed out that an official from Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been stationed in the county jail since March and that Mr. Carranza had been held there in May. “They would have an opportunity to perhaps take action,” Ms. Dow said, referring to Mr. Carranza.

Columnist Mark Steyn also wrote on Sunday about the ethics of granting sanctuary to non-citizens the likes of Mr. Carranza in a column entitled “Speaking of sanctuary, where's ours?”:

Like Los Angeles, New York and untold others, Newark has formally erased the distinction between U.S. citizens and the armies of the undocumented. This is the active collusion by multiple cities and states in the subversion of U.S. sovereignty. In Newark, N.J., it means an illegal-immigrant child rapist is free to murder on a Saturday night.

And this “287(g)” program, doesn’t that ring a bell here in Massachusetts? Indeed, just days after taking office Governor Deval Patrick rescinded the agreement based on the same law made by the Romney administration that would have trained 30 State Troopers in deportation procedures to assist the federal ICE. Instead, Patrick authorized this training only for 12 correctional officers at two state prisons. Unless illegal immigrants are convicted felons serving time here, Massachusetts will not to cooperate with the ICE or initiate the deportation process against them.

The Mr. Carranzas of this country can truly find sanctuary in New Jersey, Massachusetts and in many other states. That fact is what gives the issue of illegal immigration such power to motivate the electorate.